Day 371

During our first full day, we did a lot of visiting. We went to breakfast with my grandmother. In the afternoon, we went to my aunt and uncle's cattle farm to visit them and let Alex see the cows. In the evening, we meet up with my other aunt, my other uncle, their daughter (my cousin), and my parents (who had just arrived in TN) for dinner. After dinner, we went to my aunt, uncle and cousin's house for dessert.

The car windows were frosted over. My husband was defrosting them. As the frost was melting, I took photos, to the amusement of my grandmother, who after all these years is used to me having a camera in my hands and taking "weird" photos.

My uncle took Alex and I out on his Kubota (like a golf cart, but more sturdy and for farms), to see the herd and the farm. I never realized how large the farm was. The dark horizon line under the tree line is a river. To the left is a bit of flooding in the lower field. The cattle were all on the upper field...which you will see in a moment.

There were several calves in the herd. This one was having a snack.

This is part of the upper field, where the cattle were.

As we were headed back inside the house, I noticed how lovely the sun was through the trees and the long tree shadow it was casting.

This is the full moon at my other aunt, other uncle and cousin's house.

Day 259

I've been hearing chirping by the balcony for weeks, but I never saw anything out there, until today. I noticed two baby birds in a nest. The nest is on top of wind chimes. It's nestled between the strings that hold the chimes steady to a loop. I think these are wrens. I took the photos inside, because I didn't want to scare them. I auto adjusted the colors, so the details showed a bit better. Still they aren't as clear as I would like, but it's better to have fuzzy photos than disturb the birds. They were chirping for their mom, who did come to feed them. This is when I saw how large they were.

Day 247

Yesterday, I mentioned I had a surprise reason for coming to Chincoteague that isn't just the beach. Today, we started off by going on a pontoon cruise of the waters between Chincoteague Island and Assateague Island. On Assateague Island live wild ponies. It's thought that the ponies arrived on the island due to a shipwreck of a Spanish boat. The ponies swam ashore and have generationally lived there since. Assateague Island is split by Virginia and Maryland. On the Virginia side, where the ponies are is protected and humans can't interact with them. However once a year (in a few days actually) The Saltwater Cowboys (the volunteer fire fighters) round up some of the ponies and auction them off to raise funds for the fire station. They have been doing this since the 1920s. On the Maryland side, they occupy a beach area that is open to humans. Once again, like the other beach, it's maintained by the state and doesn't have hotels along it because it's wetland. You will see photos from both sections of Assateague Island.

Starting with the boat tour...

These ponies are free to roam on several acres of land. The boat can only come so close to the shore. There were lots of them farther away from the shore line, but those photos aren't as clear. These two ponies were separate from the herd.

I forget what kind of birds these are, but they swim under the water to catch fish and sit up on these posts to dry their wings.

We got back on shore and changed into beach clothes, to head to the Maryland side. While on the way to the hotel, we stopped to let this duck family cross.

On the Maryland side, things are much different. These ponies were grazing on the sides of the road. They are very docile, but since they are wild animals, of course we didn't attempt to interact with them.

My two favorite travelers and the beautiful clean beach. Since there are no hotels, there is a lot less trash! Delightful!

This one was about two feet away from the car.

Day 172

Today we went to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure and to Celebrate, a small community for dinner.

To enter the building where our hotel room was, there is a small pond with a walk way. In the pond are ducks, unlike any I've ever seen...

...and unusual turtles. These are our first odd animals we have encountered.

There are also hibiscus flowers around the property.

Islands of Adventure has a large variety of plants, to fit in with their different sections. Most are repeated around the park, as a lot of them are native.

Palm...I think?

A wispy tree with small flowers

These are fuzzy flowers of some sort.

The Dr. Seuss area had some plants that have been sculpted into unusual shapes.

Tree

Yertle the Turtle

Yellow flowers on a tree

Fuzzy pink flower

I like how this pretty pink flower has a spiky stalk. It's an interesting mix of soft and rough.

Male mallard duck

Red and green leaves

Female mallard duck

Low palm

Red flower on palm

Magnolia

Pink and purple flower

Pink flowers on a tree

My main peeve with Florida is these bugs. They are all over the place in HUGE amounts. They fly in pairs, probably making more.

At night, we went to Celebrate, which is a wealthy area of Orlando. We went there for excellent and inexpensive pizza.

They had these interesting flowers planted around the trees along the sidewalks.

There were these lily pad like plants growing along the edge of the pond, by the dock.